Winter weather, extreme cold alerts in effect throughout Saskatchewan

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The Land of Living Skies is living up to its nickname with a vengeance this weekend, with storm clouds spitting freezing rain over some parts of the province and dumping up to half a metre of snow on others, capped off by freezing temperatures all around.

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On Sunday morning, communities from Saskatoon to Stony Rapids woke up to an extreme cold warning, with Environment Canada forecasting “extremely cold wind chill values near minus 40 or colder” during the day.

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“Conditions will moderate during the daytime hours,” the agency predicted, “but extreme cold may return again overnight.”

Young children, seniors and people who work outdoors, have a chronic illness or don’t have access to proper shelter are at the greatest risk.

In these conditions, “frostbite can develop within minutes on exposed skin.”

Meanwhile, most of this weekend’s snow has landed on southwestern Saskatchewan near the province’s borders with Alberta and the United States, with overlapping weather alerts on Saturday covering the Eastend-Maple Creek-Cypress Hills area.

Environment Canada says “a long period of snowfall” is expected in this area over the weekend, and people should be preparing to dig themselves out of up to “30 to 50 cm” of accumulated snow by Monday morning.

On Saturday afternoon, the Saskatchewan RCMP said it was responding to multiple “weather-related collisions and incidents throughout southeast and south central Saskatchewan due to snowy and icy conditions,” and offered some safety tips for drivers stranded or stopped at the roadside.

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If you’re stuck at the side of the highway in the snow, the RCMP says, you should pull over to the right shoulder and stay out of intersections if you can. You should also stay with your vehicle, make sure you’re keeping the tailpipe clear of ice and snow, and save gas and battery power by only periodically turning the vehicle on for heat and occasionally cracking open a window on the downwind side for fresh air.

By Sunday morning, road conditions in the area had improved, but the Saskatchewan Highway Hotline was still advising would-be drivers in the Morse-Gull Lake-Swift Current area to please reconsider and stay home due to fog, ice, loose snow and reduced visibility.

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